Only united action will defeat patent trolls

This week, a bunch of prominent technology names have come out with vehement positions against Yahoo’s patent lawsuit vs. Facebook. E.g. Fred Wilson and Mark Cuban.

As is documented below, David Sacks, the CEO of Yammer went further by holding the employees of Yahoo responsible for the reprehensible actions of their management by announcing that he won’t hire any ex-Yahoo employee that doesn’t quit within the next 60 days. While it sounds extreme and potentially silly given the small size of Yammer, I think it’s an important step in that it’s an action that if joined by others could have real impact. The protests that helped defeat SOPA/PIPA (for now) are a good example. The tech community needs more people like David Sacks who are willing to stand up and take action against patent trollsand actions like this. Perhaps we can get companies to publicly go on record saying they won’t file software or process patents?

Our patent and intellectual property laws need broad reform. Software and process patents probably should be eliminated altogether. Right now, the patent system serves to reward trolls and penalize companies who are innovating/operating.

David Sacks, the CEO of Yammer, is pissed. Last month he was hit with his first lawsuit from a patent troll. So when he saw that Yahoo was going after Facebook for patent infringement, he drew a line in the sand. “I’m declaring it: Yammer will never hire another former Yahoo employee who doesn’t leave in the next 60 days. Who will join me?